Moritz Frankenberg/dpa via AP
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen speaks at the 75th Germany Day of the Junge (Young) Union, in Brunswick, Germany, October 22, 2023.
The Biden administration has been working hard to keep the European Union and its major constituent nations in support of America’s basic policies on Israel-Gaza and Russia-Ukraine. This is no mean feat, since many Europeans tend to be more war-weary and averse to open conflict with Russia, and less clearly on the side of Israel.
On Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen doubled down on her support both for Ukraine and for Israel, in a speech to the youth organization of the CDU, the German center-right party from whence von der Leyen came. This came after more than 800 EU staff took the unusual step of writing the Commission president to protest what they criticized as her pro-Israel tilt.
Meanwhile, the close and necessary U.S.-EU bond is fraying over economic issues. At the leadership level, both Biden and von der Leyen have expressed support for a Green Steel Deal, in which cleaner steel and aluminum from friendly countries (i.e., not China) would get reciprocal tariff-free treatment. October 20 was supposed to be the deadline for finalizing the deal.
But press accounts on the eve of that deadline suggested that the deal would not be made and that the U.S. and the EU were on the verge of a tariff war in steel. Though October 20 came and went, negotiations continue.
The culprits appear to be senior officials of the European Commission’s trade directorate, some of whom seem to think that the U.S. is more a menace than China, and are doing their best to sabotage the deal with obscure technical objections, despite the support of the EU’s political leadership for getting the deal done. In addition, the Europeans are demanding some kind of offset to the U.S. subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act for U.S.-made electric vehicles, and that demand is souring other aspects of the negotiations.
Meanwhile, pressure continues from the U.S. tech industry for the Biden administration to treat the EU’s exemplary pro-privacy and pro-competition rules for digital “gateway” platforms as discriminatory trade practices on the ground that all of the abusive platform monopolies happen to be American. My sources say that the White House and U.S. trade representative are refusing to be cowed.
Happily, there is also counterpressure. Late last week, a coalition of consumer and tech reform groups sent Biden a joint letter urging him to support the EU regs.
Given the fraught military and geopolitical challenges, it’s important for the U.S. and the EU to stay together. The last thing that either side needs is a rupture over economic issues.
